Castle Marrach

Is it possible to design an online game so that communication, community, story-telling, and the genuine playing of roles is core and essential to the experience?

Of course it is. You just won't get the $40m budget you need for a big commercial title out of the philistines who rule our industry today unless you want, in essence, to imitate World of Warcraft.

Enter Skotos, and Castle Marrach.

Brothers and sisters, let us take as the subject for today's discussion the following:

Resolved: The purpose of an online game is to facilitate socialization and communication among the players.

Throughout all history until Pong, games were primarily instruments of socialization, a way to have fun with your friends while chatting with them. But due to the inherently single-user nature of home PCs (and to a lesser degree consoles), games have been warped in ways that digital game designers only dimly comprehend, into essentially solitary exercises.

The existence of a worldwide network allows, in principle, games to return to their natural form, as ways for people to have fun and make friends. Yet surveying the landscape of online games today, we can see that most do a rather bad job at doing so. From FPS to RTS, gameplay is so frenetic you rarely have time to spit out more than a taunt in chat; and virtually all MMOs are hack-and-slash fests, dikuMUD with graphics, if you will, in which most players are too caught up in the level grind to even notice the others whom they pass at a run.

And yet, it was not ever so; back in the day, when we paid for expensive dialup connections at 300 or 1200 or 2400 baud, there were innumerable MUSHes and MOOs whose gameplay was built mainly around communication, conspiring with and against others, and the establishment of in-game relationships with other characters.

Skotos was founded several years ago precisely to focus on games that emphasize socialization and roleplaying over hack-and-slash; and while their budgets are modest, and their games essentially text-based, they've been successful in doing so. In a game like Castle Marrach (or Skotos's other text MMOs, like Lovecraft Country or The Eternal City, you will find dynamic worlds that actually change in response to player actions, intrigue and mystery--and environments where there are only a few hundred players, so that you do, over time, establish relationships of one kind or another with most of the other players. Games, in other words, where it is actually possible to make a difference--and where everyone may well come to know your name.

The conventional industry regards Skotos's products as marginal and retro--no particle effects? no monstrous 3D realm? And yet from a game design perspective, there's more innovation in any one of these games than you'll see in any big-budget MMO released this year.

Business Model:
First month is free, after which Skotos requires a subscription at $12.95/month, which also gives access to all other games they provide.

Skotos says:

Q: What's Castle Marrach?

A: Castle Marrach is our first game. It was opened up for beta testing on September 21, 2000 and officially released on April 2, 2001. It's a fantasy game of cooperative storytelling that centers around the themes of intrigue, mystery, and romance.

We rate our games by how large they are, what genre they fit into, what types of interaction players have, and what the basic style of gameplay is. Castle Marrach can thus be described as follows:

Grand Theatre. Castle Marrach is an ongoing game, but the size of the world is constrained. All of the action takes place within a single Castle, far from the rest of the world.

Fantasy. The genre of Castle Marrach is high fantasy. It draws upon fairy tales, mythology, and medieval romances.

Cooperative. The game of Castle Marrach centers around players working together to tell stories and to advance the plots of the game.

Social. Castle Marrach is at heart an entirely social games. It's by interacting with other people and roleplaying that you become involved with Marrach's story.

More information is available in the Castle Marrach Tutorial and the Player's Guide. In addition, you can read articles from Trials, Triumphs & Trivialities that discuss Marrachian issues.

Or, you can just log in ....

Q: What is cooperative storytelling?

Unlike many other role-playing games, Castle Marrach focuses on storytelling — creating and playing out stories in cooperation with other players. In many respects, Castle Marrach is more like improvisational theater than a game. There are no clear-cut goals that the players need to achieve in order to win. A story might have any number of outcomes, depending upon actions of the players who become involved. The challenge comes in creating a compelling drama that brings the Role you have created to life. Sometimes you will reach your goals and sometimes you won’t, but you will always feel like a winner when you’ve told a good story.

Q: What is the story of Marrach?

A: You awaken in a small, dank chamber deep within the Castle Marrach. Who are you? How did you come to be here? You explore the labyrinthine corridors of the Castle and the questions seem to multiply. Why has the drawbridge not been let down in living memory? How does the Castle replenish its supplies? There seem only to be questions, but somewhere, there must be answers. Intrigue, mystery, romance and fantasy combine in the story of Castle Marrach.

Q: What is my role in Marrach's Story?

A: You are a Newly Awakened Guest in Castle Marrach with little memory of the past. You will explore the Castle and meet the denizens there. As you join guilds and become a part of Marrach's society, you will also become a participant in its stories.

Q: What are the main technical features of Castle Marrach?

A: Marrach technical features emphasize a robust social game. They include: proximities to create clear relations between people and things; numerous social verbs and adverbs; and a consent system. Marrach also has a vast alteration system that allows for the creation of tens of thousands of unique items by the players.

Some of Marrach’s most important non-technical features are: a world run and plotted entirely by trusted players; Hosted major characters; far-reaching plots underlying the entire game; and a responsive customer experience team dedicating to ensuring players have fun.

Q: Is Marrach a MUD or a MUSH?

A: Neither. Castle Marrach is most closely related to MUSHes, but also takes some inspiration from MUDs. You can duel in Marrach, for example. However, Castle Marrach also improves upon the genres. It features new, third-generation technology and places a very solid emphasis on a long-term plotline.

Q: Can you Player Kill (PK) in Marrach?

A: No. In general, Marrach is based upon consent. Nothing bad can happen to a player unless he agrees to it in some form (perhaps by working with a StoryTeller to coordinate a plot, perhaps just by accepting a duel).

Reviews:

"In short, the folks at Skotos are making breakthroughs daily in how I waste my workday."
   - RPGnet

"Overall, Castle Marrach seems like a well-done setting that is perfect for those folks who can spend an entire gaming session chatting in-character, without the standard trappings of most RPGs."
   - Gaming Report

"Jayland nods, 'Yes, there is much to learn about the castle... And it always changes. Marrach is appealing because it goes more for Drama than action, a lot of which is player driven, with help from the StoryPlotters, StoryGuides and StoryHosts.'"
   - Grrlgamer.com